Free Hugs
by Joy Katie
Summary: Short O/S based on a writing prompt. Written in two days so don't be too critical. T for the themes I guess. What happens when your hugs can cure terminal illnesses? AU


**This story is based off a prompt (I will post it at the end) that I saw on a FB page. I wrote the whole thing over a couple of days as I needed to study and couldn't risk getting distracted. It seems to jump tenses and doesn't flow as it should but that's what you get for writing for two days and then posting without editing. Please let me know what you think and whether I should try more O/S from prompts.**

 **I don't actually like the way I wrote this. It has minimal speech, and that only really comes at the end, because I needed the whole back story in, and I couldn't work out how to do that with speech. So I know this is a weird format, but I just wrote the way it came to me and this is it. I know it seems rushed towards the end but I stayed up all night to get it done so I could focus on studying, hopefully my need to do some 'fun' writing quenched for now.**

* * *

The hardest thing about Emma's childhood was not that she had been abandoned at birth. It was not that she had spent the first three years of her life in and out of foster homes. It was not that she had felt out of place well into her teen years. It was that, for the first three years of her life, she never experienced one of the most innate forms of human contact, a hug. What was even worse than that, was that when she was finally adopted by her forever family, she learned that for some reason, whether it be karma, fate, or just damn bad luck, she could not hug a person without it negatively affecting her health.

She had seen doctors and specialists and professionals from countries all around the world and nothing could explain it. There was no diagnosable skin condition that could explain it, immunologists were stumped, neurologists had failed to find anything wrong with her nervous system, and psoriasis had been ruled out a week after she'd been hugged for the first time and collapsed. After it had happened for a second time, and then a third she'd been allergy tested to every known allergen they could think of, they'd tested for anthrax and other kinds of early exposure poisoning with no results. She'd fallen over at school when she was six years old and ended up in the hospital when her relatively new teacher who didn't know she wasn't supposed to be hugged had found her crying. They'd placed her in a sterile room, attached monitors to her to measure everything, and had asked the little girl if she'd allow her parents to hug her so they could measure her reaction. Of course the 6 year old, intimacy starved little girl had nodded enthusiastically and moved to the bed set up so she could sit, knowing when she was hugged she would fall.

Emma was surprised to have seen her parents crying when they walked into the sterile room, wearing gloves, gowns and masks. She figured they would be happy that they were allowed to hug her. She was certainly happy she was allowed to hug them. She bounced in her seat a couple of times, smiling widely, wanting nothing more than to hold on to her parents and not let go. She knew that would not happen. She knew, that for whatever reason, she would start to go dizzy, start struggling for breath and black out in a matter of moments. The thought caused her excitement to vanish and she looked up at her parents with a sad smile as she held out her arms to them. For a few seconds she cherished the warmth, the feeling of overwhelming love coming from her parents before her chest began to hurt and her vision began to get blurry. The last thing she thought before she passed out was how happy she was to be able to hug her mommy and daddy.

Mary Margaret and David Nolan had hugged their daughter maybe six times in the three years that they had had her. It broke their hearts that they were unable to offer her certain aspects of the love and affection that she had not received in her earlier life, and it hurt them when they felt her go floppy in their arms. They had been searching for answers for three years, and they didn't look any closer to an answer, or a cure. David stepped back, leaving Mary Margaret to lay her down properly, pressing a kiss to her forehead through the mask as David wrapped an arm around her waist, the pair watching their unconscious daughter, as the monitors measured a multitude of things. They knew it wouldn't last forever, she was usually out of it within an hour or two and back to herself after she'd had something to eat and a nap a few hours after that. But it was still their child, in hospital, with an undiagnosed, unexplained condition which prevented them from holding her when she was scared or sad or just wanted a cuddle.

Emma had stayed in the sterile room overnight with them continuing to monitor before she was moved to a ward where she remained for the next few days. She was getting ready to leave when she was visited by the teacher who had put her in the hospital in the first place. She had been feeling guilty and had asked the school to contact Emma's parents and ask them if she was ok to visit. Mary Margaret and David had readily agreed, wanting her to know that they did not blame her, that it was unheard of to them, before they got their daughter, too.

She bought Emma a colouring book and a teddy from the gift shop, about half the size of the six year old, mostly by way of apology, but also figuring she could at least cuddle that in the meantime and that she could be occupied while she spoke to her parents. She had some news that she didn't know whether to share, but it was something that had been on her mind for the past few days. She knocked quietly on the door and watched as the young girl in the bed looked up first, her smile widening as she saw who it was. Mulan was shocked by that, as she had only been Emma's teacher for two weeks before the incident. She entered on permission from the parents, offering the gifts to the blonde who enthusiastically accepted. When she was occupied, the young teacher sat with the parents, apologising profusely for what had happened. She asked them what they knew about the condition, and its affects, not only on Emma herself, but those she hugged. Mary Margaret and David were confused, and Mulan was embarrassed but she explained that about a month ago she had been diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer, and when she had attended the hospital for further scans and tests this week before her treatment plan was created she had been given the all clear, the dumbfounded doctors calling it 'spontaneous remission'. She noticed that Emma was watching them, not understanding what they were saying but apparently interested in the conversation, especially when Mulan mentioned that her hugs were 'magic'. The little girl lost interest quickly when Mulan went on to inform the parents that her family's history was in alternative medicine, one cousin even calling himself 'The Dragon' and running a herbal remedies shop. She left shortly after, and after a brief discussion about her visit, her querying about the 'healing powers' of the little girl was pushed aside, they moved on to the results from the doctors test, namely that still… they had found nothing.

It was something that was brought up again 9 months later however, when Emma was playing with her best friend Auggie while their parents were catching up and Emma had decided to eavesdrop on their conversation. Even though Emma was only seven, she had spent a lot of time in hospitals and around doctors and so she understood a few things. So she was shocked when she heard her best friend's father tell her parents that he had recently been diagnosed with osteosarcoma. She didn't understand that word, but she knew when she heard her mommy say cancer that it was bad. She looked back at her friend who was watching her with a sad face, tears gathering in both of their eye. Emma didn't think twice, she lunged at her friend and hugged him tight, not minding that she was starting to get dizzy when she felt him hugging her back. Emma had been scolded when she'd woken up at home, not only for eavesdropping but for putting herself at risk. That was the first time Emma ever talked back to her parents, yelling that she didn't care, her friend was sad and she wanted to hug him to make him feel better. Knowing that their daughter was in a vulnerable place emotionally, the little girl was not punished for her tantrum, and it was all forgotten until a month later when Geppetto contacted Mary Margaret and David, as friends, and his son's best friend's parents, that August had gone into remission and was no longer sic, not requiring the intensive treatment or the surgery that had been suggested at the time of diagnosis.

It was strange, two people that Emma had hugged had recovered from cancer but the thought that Emma's hugs cured people of illnesses was too crazy to even consider, and so it was ignored. As she got older and began to understand more about her, still undiagnosed, condition she was more careful. She did not hug people any more, allowing herself to squeeze a teddy or a pillow when she felt she needed to, and she only had one more episode over two years. There had been no more mentions of magic hugs and it had been forgotten.

xox

That was until six weeks after Mary Margaret's and David's tenth wedding anniversary when Emma was nine. Mary Margaret had been sick for a week or so when she visited the doctor and she returned home to David and Emma cooking dinner together, looking ashen. She walked into the kitchen and stood silently until David wrapped his arms around her, asking what was wrong. She still did not speak, only opened her mouth like she wanted to but with no words coming out, that was until Emma took her hand and squeezed it tight, a method of giving affection that had, as of yet, had no negative effects. It was then that Mary Margaret informed her family that she was pregnant. Emma watched as her parents had a silent conversation, it going on for so long that she returned to the stove to stir the pasta while she waited for them to finish.

When they did finally stop, they each took Emma by the hand and squeezed tight, their way of hugging her the only way they could. They went on to tell her about how Mary Margaret had been diagnosed as infertile after suffering from an infection as a teen, and had been told before they had adopted her that in no uncertain terms, she would never get pregnant. And in that moment, with the emotion that was flowing through them, the only thing they could think of by way of explanation was all of the hugs that Emma had given them when she was younger. They were smart, practical people that believed in science and medicine, but there were clearly some things that science just could not explain.

Emma was happy, as much as she could be. Her hugs, if it really was that, had cured two people of cancer and had given her parents one of the things they wanted most, the final piece to their family puzzle. She had no idea if it was just wishful thinking and poor medical practices in the past, or whether there was an element of truth to it, but it was something that medical professionals had forbidden her from investigating herself. They still, after six years, had no idea of the long term, or even short term effects on Emma and had advised her that wishful thinking or coincidences were not enough to risk her health. As much as Mary Margaret and David were philanthropists and spent a lot of their time helping others, they agreed with the doctors and did not allow Emma to test her theory.

When she turned 16 however, there was nothing they could do to stop her from rebelling. She had spent over ten years with loving parents, she'd loved and been loved by her baby brother Leo and she'd had almost everything she'd ever asked for. However, the lack of physical comfort that she was allowed had caused her to develop depression and at sixteen, she left the family home and did not return until almost two years. She'd kept in contact with her parents, promising them that she was safe, still in school, and that she was not taking any unnecessary risks, but they did not know how true that was when she arrived home just before her 18th birthday, over five months pregnant. Of course Mary Margaret and David had welcomed their daughter back with figuratively open arms, and they'd had to almost physically restrain Leo from trying to hug her on her arrival.

She told them the stories of her travels and they listened with apt attention as she showed them her diploma, her accepted application for college, the scans that she had of her baby and bank records showing it had once contained half a million dollars, quickly skipping through the story of how she'd spent time travelling, looking for answers and had been offered substantial payment to hug someone suffering from end-stage organ failure as a result of sepsis. They had been given weeks, if not days to live, yet one week after she had hugged her, she had got out of bed for the first time in over two months and stood in the kitchen for two hours cooking a lasagne. The girl's parents had paid her $500,000, their entire life savings on the last-ditch attempt to save their daughter's life she had moved in after she was healed, just in case she was needed again. For the next four months she had become close with Regina, eventually transferring every single penny back to them, feeling guilty for accepting their money.

It was only after that, after she had told Regina about her history, about her 'condition' and about the fact she would not be able to hug her, before finishing the speech by telling her she loved her for the first time, after she had been accepted to college, after she had been away from her parents for almost two years, did she find out that she was pregnant. She knew it was her ex's, the one she'd been with for six months, who'd disappeared on her two weeks before Cora and Henry had contacted her for the first time. She found out after she'd confirmed her pregnancy that he had gone to jail for fencing stolen watches and that he'd been on the run for over a year, meaning he was expecting to spend the next 3 years in prison. Regina had repeated her words of love when she told her, and had convinced the teen to go home, to see her parents and to explain, promising she would be there for her when she returned.

By the end of explaining all of this to her parents and unknowingly her nine year old brother, she was in tears and wanted nothing more than to be held by her parents. However she did not know what affect her condition would have on her child, what would happen if she 'collapsed' the way she did when she was pregnant, she did not even know if it was something that she would pass on to her kid and so she held back, instead holding onto their hands for dear life when they offered them.

xox

She spent a week with them, telling them all about her plans to study medicine, to keep looking for a cure, or to do whatever she needed to do to try and cure other people. She told them of her plans, after the child was born and slightly older, to find people who needed to be healed who could afford to pay. She frowned when her parents looked rightly affronted but explained that doing this for money meant she could travel for a cure, she could put money into medical research to find cures, and she could fund treatments for terminal illnesses and eventually, hopefully be able to provide free treatment to whoever needed it in any corner of the world. She knew that the explanation did not help, and although she would be healing the richest of the rich, it made her feel cheap. She hoped that by doing this she would save as any people as she could, without risking her own health. She promised her parents that she would still work for her money, she would use the other funds only for those purposes, and would live within her means. The teen had told them about how Regina had promised to help her raise her baby, that she would help her get through medical school, that she would be there for hospital appointments and she told them something that she had not told Regina, that one day she planned to marry her. It was an eventful week, but the one thing she needed her parents to know before she left again was that she was ok, and that she would continue to be so.

xox

It was two days before she was supposed to fly back to Regina when she woke to the phone ringing. It was her girlfriend, crying and panicking on the phone that her father had suffered a heart attack and had been rushed to hospital. The young girl was up quickly and was packing in a matter of moments calling for her parents who rushed in, worried their daughter was hurt. She begged David to give her a ride to the airport, promising on her way out that she would visit again as soon as she could. She arrived at the hospital a few hours later, finding Regina pacing outside the cath lab where they were working on her father. The one thing she wanted to do was hug her tight but knew that she couldn't, and so she held her forearms, squeezing lightly, just trying to demonstrate that she was there for her girlfriend.

"Regina… are you ok? Is Henry? What's going on?" The brunette looked up at her girlfriend, tear tracks painting her face. Her bottom lip was quivering and she was trying to stop a new round of tears from falling. Emma lifted her hand from her arm, to cup her face and the older woman leant into her touch closing her eyes at the only part of comfort she would get.

"He… He's…" The tears began to fall again, and Emma used both hands to wipe the tears from her face as they fell. She leaned forward pressing a kiss to her forehead as she took a breath. "He's still alive… they're treating him now but… they don't know if he'll pull through…" The blonde fought the urge to just hug her tight, stroking her hand down her cheek.

"Regina, sweetheart… I can… Let me go in there and…" She couldn't even finish her sentence before Regina shook her head, one hand gripping her hand, the other sitting on Emma's hip, her thumb stroking the small swell that had developed.

"You know I can't let you do that… We don't know how much damage it can do to you, or the baby, we can't even risk it…"

"But what if you regret…" Regina cut her off with a glare.

"Don't go there Emma… My Papi… he is old. This isn't his first heart attack, and he has had a good life. He would not want you to risk…" She continued to rant until Emma had to kiss her properly to stop her talking. It was brief and she pulled back, looking at the other woman apologetically. Regina was about to reply when Cora walked over to them, drying her hands on a paper towel as she walked. She tried to smile at her daughter's girlfriend but it was forced and she dropped it quickly. Before she could say a word though, the door that led to the cath lab opened and a doctor walked through, aiming for the three stood by the window. He looked sombre, and Emma's stomach dropped.

"I'm so sorry Mrs and Miss Mills, but unfortunately the damage to Mr Mills' heart was too extensive, and we were unable to get it started again…" The sound that came from Cora was animalistic and she fell to her knees as she yelled out, Regina dropping to her knees too to pull her into a hug. Emma could not comprehend the pain that the woman she loved and her mother was going through but her own heart felt like it was breaking at witnessing the devastation of the loss of the husband and father. Emma wanted nothing more than to hold them both, to help hold Regina together as Regina was doing for her mother, but she had known the family for less than half a year. This was not her loss, and all she could do was stand and watch the pair, cradling her stomach as tears began to fall.

xox

It was hard, not being able to support Regina in the way she wanted to, through the loss of her father, and his funeral. Cora had sunk into a deep depression and Regina was caring for her, trying to get her to eat and bathe at certain intervals. Emma, now six months pregnant and working full time to save money until after the baby was born was making sure Regina managed to eat and get some sleep when she could, but spent most of her free time researching, leaving private ads, trying to find someone who desperately needed to be healed, and would pay good money to be so. She finally did so, two weeks before her due date. Cora had gone away to spend some time with her other daughter, Regina's half-sister and Regina had been slowly starting to recover from losing her father. The couple had been spending every spare moment they had together, trying to plan what would happen in the next few months. Together, using only their money and none from the inheritance, the couple had put down a deposit for a small-ish two bedroom apartment, the one where they, somehow reluctantly, agreed Regina would care for the baby while Emma flew first to Australia to heal try and heal the Prime Minister's cousin from her congenital heart disease, before flying to South Africa to try and heal the President's younger brother from his recent AIDS diagnosis. Her final stop before returning home to her girlfriend and child would be California, where the owner and CEO of a prominent internet search engine was looking to be healed of MS. The amount of money she stood to make from the three was obscene and, with her future plans for the money, she could not turn it down. If it turned out that it had all been a fluke, and that her hugs did not heal, then she would obviously not accept the money but she figured four times was a little more than a coincidence.

Of course she had still not had an answer as to whether there were any long term effects on her health. The last time she had 'hugged to heal' had been Regina and she had suffered the short term effects for longer than she had as a kid, but they did not know if this was due to her pregnancy or not, and she could not wait to give birth, partly so she could continue testing to see if they could finally, after 15 years, get a diagnosis. Once the plan was in place, Emma finally called her parents, inviting them to New York to be there for when the baby was born. She was grateful to have Regina, she would be able to offer the child everything he would need. She knew that she could not live with the idea of not being able to hold her child, to not hug him and so the thought of him being with someone who already loved the idea of him, who would love him from the moment he was born, made her decision slightly easier, and the fact that her parents and Leo would stay with her girlfriend and child while she was away helped. They were all going to be there at the hospital, Emma not willing to risk her holding her child for the first time causing her to collapse and hurt him. In fact, her baby would spend the first week or so of his life in hospital, experiencing some of the tests she had in her childhood, testing to see if he had the same thing that she did. Regina had volunteered to be the one to hug him during his test, already considering the child her son.

xox

His due date arrived quickly and Regina helped a contracting Emma into the car, driving her to the hospital she had not been to since her father had passed. Mary Margaret, David and Leo had flown out two days before and they were waiting at the hospital when the couple arrived. David settled in the waiting room with Leo while Mary Margaret joined Emma and Regina. The day passed quickly at times, and agonizingly slowly at others. When her son was eventually born, Regina was the first to hold him, tears dripping delicately down her face when Mary Margaret asked her grandsons name, and Emma responded it was Henry. When her parents had gone back to their hotel, Regina settled down with Emma, her head leaning on the blonde's shoulder as they stared at the child in front of them. Emma had held him and had felt no adverse effects, and so vowed to hold him as much as she could unless she began to feel as she usually did.

"Emma… sweetheart… are you sure you want to name your son after my father? I love you and I love him, so much, already but… he's your baby…"

Emma tore her eyes away from her son, turning to face her girlfriend. "I couldn't save him… this way, we can honour him." Regina didn't respond, instead wiped the tears from her eyes. Emma laughed quietly, trying to break the tension, using her thumb to wipe a stray tear. "Hey there… I'm the one that just gave birth… I'm the one that should be hormonal right now…" The two stared at each other for a few moments before Regina's mouth twitched and she smiled. She glanced at Henry who was sleeping on Emma's thighs, raised on her lifted knees and then back at the exhausted, sweaty blonde, looking more beautiful than she ever had before.

"Marry me?"

Xox

What was harder than the fact she was leaving her fiancée and newborn son for an undetermined amount of time was that she was unable to hug them goodbye. She had stayed in New York for two weeks after her sons birth, feeding him, changing him, bathing him. Regina was the one who got up when he was crying and held him till he fell asleep. She was the one who he nuzzled in to for comfort. It hurt Emma to see her son bonding with Regina more than her, but she knew that was the way it had to be.

When she left, she never expected to be gone for over six, but that was how it was. She healed the Prime Ministers cousin on her first day there and then spent two weeks getting every test from a prominent Australian geneticist and other specialists. They had made some progress and she received an email when she was in South Africa stating they wanted to discuss her test results, and so after her time there, she flew back, hearing that they had more of a suggested long term effect than one that could be proven by science. Using the latest in medical technology they had determined that, for whatever reason, her life expectancy decreased every time she healed someone with her hugs. There was obviously no way of confirming that it was her hugs that was doing the healing, but after the president's brother was healed and the CEO was given a clean bill of health, it was assumed to be the case.

She returned home and shared the news with her family. Their reactions were what they would have been assumed to be. Regina cried. Mary Margaret cried. Leo cried, though he didn't really understand what was going on and Emma watched as her family comforted each other, as she sat on the side lines. They argued with her, telling her she could not put her life at risk to save others, they said that she had Henry to think about, that she had parents, a brother, a fiancée who loved her. Emma sat and listened to it for a while before she grew annoyed and she spent the next hour lecturing them about what she could do with the money. The research she could fund, the cures it would create, the people she could save. Wouldn't it be worth it, her life to save millions? Her argument was so strong, they found none of them could dispute it.

Xox

And that was exactly what she did. For the next 18 months, her and her team found the people who would pay exponentially to live. With a little of the money, Emma bought her now-wife and son a new house, she set up a trust and she knew that when she was gone, they would be set for life. 95% of the funds went as she said it would, to charities fighting terminal diseases, to hospitals and treatment centres, to research organisations looking for cures. Whenever she healed someone, she requested, as a 'condition' that they make a consistent donation to a charity or association of their choice. Most of them were so grateful to be healed, to be given their life back that they would do it.

Emma began to heal approximately two or three people a month, though when it was getting on towards Henry's first birthday, the constant attacks to her system was making her weaker. She started to reduce her travelling, started to request they came to her, and she had an office in the city, actually within the hospital, created so she could be treated after the healings. A tiny percentage of the funds she received from the healings went to her own medical care which were getting more substantial by the month. She kept going though. Monthly donations to charities, to research groups, to hospitals were coming out of her bank account, her own bills miniscule in comparison. It was good work she was doing, saving people, even if it was slowly killing her.

When Henry started walking, Emma and Regina took him on holiday. They had 12 weeks, just the three of them, which Emma used to regroup, and to spend time with the two loves of her life, not dealing with anything work related in all that time. Henry was starting to talk. He could say a few things, including telling his mommies that he loved them. He knew somehow, even at his age that he could not hug one mommy, but that she would always give him kisses and read to him and tuck him into bed. Emma and her wife spent their evenings talking, planning. Emma told her how her depression had returned. How she had been pinning her hopes on this money making a bigger difference than it seemed to be. How it wasn't going as fast as she thought it would. Realistically she knew that you couldn't rush science, that medical breakthroughs happened when they happened, but she figured they'd actually happen in her lifetime.

Regina told Emma about all the things she planned to do with Henry in the future. What she wanted him to do, how she was going to raise him. It was an unspoken awareness between them that if Emma kept doing this, she would not live long enough to see Henry grow up. She secretly thought it was a little selfish, that she was leaving her wife and son without her for the rest of their lives but then she thought about the recent new treatments for heart conditions that had been funded, in part due to Emma's contributions and considered the possible breakthroughs to come and she felt guilty for thinking that.

Towards the end of the holiday, Emma began to share more. Facing having to go back to seeing her family once a week, from the healings, to the time in hospital, she was dreading it. Her depression was back with a vengeance, and she was beginning to lose faith in what she was doing and why. What bothered her more so was seeing the people who deserved the cures, who needed the healings, still sick and suffering. She spent a lot of money making sure the children's wards were well stocked with everything the children could need. She donated to organisations that gave terminal children a final wish, often visiting them and doing a little work on behalf of the organisations but she knew it wasn't enough. She knew she needed to do more. It took 8 weeks with Regina and Henry to work out what that was, but she did work it out.

For the final two weeks of their holiday, Emma flew her parents and brother and Regina's mother out to their destination and she made it the most of her time with them. They didn't know her plan and she wasn't going to tell them, though they probably assumed something was wrong when she told them all how much she loved them, and gave her parents and brother a group hug. When they returned home, Emma put her plan into action. She made all the arrangements she needed and made sure to tell Regina and Henry at every spare moment she had, how much she loved them.

xox

Her plan was put in place for the day of her 21st birthday. It was kind of poetic, she thought, her birth wasn't anything special, and she had never liked celebrating her birthdays, the lack of physical affection in her life seeing to that. Of course the work that she had been doing for the last couple of years had garnered significant media interest and there were instances where she would find herself being followed to see if they could get some information about who was ill, with what, and how much they would pay to be healed. For her plan, on this day, she decided that she didn't want the media involved. She was not doing it for the media attention but for the children and so sent them on a wild goose chase away from where she was.

One of the breakthroughs had been a medication that for some reason, prevented Emma from collapsing like she used to. She got dizzy, she struggled to breathe, she ached, her head pounding, but she stayed standing. She was grateful for it at that time as before she left the house she hugged Henry tightly, spinning him around, stopping every few seconds to slow the dizziness that was overwhelming her, proclaiming her everlasting love for him. Hearing him say it back caused the tension in her shoulders to lessen, just a little bit. When she reached the hospital, carrying all the supplies she needed, holding tightly to her wife's hand. She kissed her holding her close in a way she had never managed to before, resting their foreheads together for a minute while she gained the courage to do what she needed to.

She took the piece of cardboard from her bag, writing two words upon it, and began to walk the wards of the hospital beside her wife. She saw children with cancer, cystic fibrosis, meningitis, leukaemia, panencephalitis, aplastic anaemia, SCID and more. She held out the sign to them, watching the smiles light up their faces as they read.

Free hugs.

She continued to walk while she could, and then when she could no longer walk, she was pushed in a wheelchair. A hug left some children feeling immediate effects, while with others only noticed a difference after Emma had circled their ward and left. There was no doubting it now though, her hugs were curing them.

When she could finally take no more she waved a hand and Regina pulled the chair to a stop. She shooed everyone else away, standing in front of her wife who looked on the verge of collapse. The blonde used every last ounce of energy she had, to stand and hold her arms out, uttering two final words.

"Free hug?"

Regina held her arms out and caught the blonde as she collapsed, holding onto her tighter than ever before, as she felt her heart slow. Her tears did not stop as doctors entered the room, pulling the grieving woman away from the dying one, so they could work on her. Though she knew it was fruitless, the usually strong woman held on to a ribbon of hope that there was something that could be done.

Emma held on.

For three days she remained alive but in a coma. She was visited by her parents, her brother, her old friends, Mulan and August even made an appearance. The situation was the top story on the news, especially when it was confirmed that all of the children she had hugged had been cured, or healed. Regina never left her side, with Cora bringing Henry in, Regina only allowing it because he was too young to really remember.

It was a media circus outside. When she died, they portrayed her as someone who had literally given her life to save others. She was hailed a hero. Announcements of new treatments were being made, and Regina knew Emma would have hated it.

xox

Four weeks later, Regina gathered with family and friends to say their final goodbye. As a final act of her selflessness, Emma had given her body to science, hoping they would be able to finally diagnose whatever it was that she had, that whatever they found, they could use as a cure. Regina was grateful that Emma was not able to see that they were unsuccessful, and all that it had resulted in was a delay to the funeral.

Mary Margaret and David had forbidden any media presence. They had agreed to allow all the people Emma had healed to be invited, they could attend if they wished and most of them did. Powerful figures from around the world were given seats and children from the hospital had been found places to sit with their parents. Even without the media though, the place was packed. It warmed Regina's heart to know that her Emma would not be forgotten as long as these children were alive.

Of course she got up to make a speech. Henry had requested that he stand with his mommy and did so, bravely staring out at the large crowds. Regina made a speech about Emma, the daughter, the wife, the mother. The saviour.

The room was silent when she was finished, every one taking a moment to think of how they knew her. Henry had been quiet, but he turned to his mother with his arms outstretched, a concerned look on his face as he saw his mommy was crying.

"Free hugs?"

* * *

 **Prompt: your hugs heal people, but it comes with a cost. It decreases your lifespan by 5%. Only the richest of the rich come to see you. You have cured clients with cancer, aids, incurable diseases and more. However, those poor children dying in hospital, the urge to help them eats you alive. You are getting depressed as you can't stand the injustice any longer. You set out to visit a hospital for children with terminal illnesses. You write two words on a piece of cardboard: free hugs.**


End file.
